Book Review: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
November 2, 2020
Not going to lie; I love me a good tragedy. I am an Enneagram four after all.
Another confession: I am still weepy as I write this review.
Last one: this is the first real “twist” that has caught me off guard for a while.
Okay, so I am reading through all these autumn and winter books and what is more autumn than a good psychological thriller? That is at least what this book was labeled as. Would I have labeled it as that, meh, but that may be because of The Silent Patient. Now that was a psychological thriller. So, I think what I am feeling about it being in that category is like if you were to grow up drinking real hot cocoa when it got cold out, like with milk and cocoa powder, then someone offers you the powdered crap in hot water and it seems a little off. But this is beside the point.
This was a beautiful book. I finished it in two sittings. It was gripping and had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. The timeline goes back and forth so you see what happens on both sides of the timeline as they come closer and closer to meeting in the middle. The characters are easy to follow because the author uses their names as the titles of the chapters, but the sound of all of their voices is the same. She does not adapt her style depending on whose head we are in, and I think that was something that she really could have leaned into. There were moments of it, and I guess I’m not quite sure what I am expecting to have been different, but if they spoke to themselves a little differently I think it would have been even easier to understand.
We follow the tragedy of a young woman, Mia Dennett, who goes missing. We follow her the night before she gets abducted through the eyes of her captor, the investigation through the eyes of the lead detective, and the sorrow through the eyes of her mother. Colin, her captor, is a rough and tumble young man that is in desperate need of a little money, so he decides to take on this project. Gabe, the detective, is a middle aged, intelligent man who gets volunteered for this high profile case that could very well end his career if he’s not careful. Eve, Mia’s mother, is the British wife of Judge James Dennett who comes from a long line of very important, very wealthy, people. We follow Colin in his decision making and his life’s hardships and, slowly, fall in love with his character. Gabe is an excellent detective who doesn’t rest until he finds out what happened to Mia and does everything in his power to get her home safely. Eve recalls her adventure through motherhood and all of the regrets that came up on the way. She wasn’t the best mother, and she knows that, but now her world is crashing around her and she doesn’t know what to do.
It feels like an injustice to only say this much about this book, but it also feels like an injustice to you, if you have not read this book, to say anything more about this book. I fell in love with the characters and was sad to see the book end. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to be kept on the edge of their seat and is fine with not being too very fond of the main character.
